Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has directed authorities concerned to look into the ways to compensate affected consumers in case of unscheduled power cuts

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has directed authorities concerned to look into the ways to compensate affected consumers in case of unscheduled power cuts. (AP image)

People in Delhi are experiencing blistering heat as well as frequent power cuts in many parts of the national capital. With an aim to provide some sort of relief, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has directed authorities concerned to look into the ways to compensate affected consumers in case of unscheduled power cuts, according to Indian Express report. Kejriwal has asked daily report on outages. Apart from increasing the capacity of discoms’ call centres for satisfactory disposal of people’s complaints, the Chief Minister wanted power distribution companies to send messages to consumers if they resort to unscheduled power cuts. In his direction to the chief secretary, Kejriwal said a proposal should be placed before Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal over the compensation issue.

Notably, in 2016, the government had implemented a decision to penalise discoms for unscheduled power cuts. The AAP government’s move was struck down by the Delhi High Court since the it didn’t have approval from the L-G’s office, according to IE report.

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Power cuts for hours were witnessed yesterday in areas like Patparganj, Chhatarpur, Uttam Nagar, Krishna Nagar, Laxmi Nagar, New Ashok Nagar, Pachim Vihar, Karol Bagh, Tagore Garden, Sangam Vihar, Seelampur, Chandni Chowk, Anand Parbat, Jahangirpuri, Majnu Ka Tila, Burari, Azadpur and Karkardooma. The BSES, however, said the power supply was robust. “The power demand is nearly 9 per cent more than the peak power demand of 6,000 MW recorded on the same day (June 6) last year. The fact that the city’s power demand has crossed the 6,500 MW-mark shows the robustness of the capital’s distribution and transmission system, which was able to largely measure up,” said a BSES spokesperson, adding that the highest power demand recorded in June last year was 6,260 MW.

Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia had assured that Delhi does not have shortage of power but has surplus. “The government is fully prepared to meet even 8,000 MW demand. In some areas, transformers had tripped because of excessive heat and high demand, that is why outages occurred in the last two days,” Sisodia said.